Monday, May 28, 2012

Accents Mastered updated

Two days ago I happened to finish reading Jeffrey Toobin's book The Nine about the Supreme Court.  Flipping through Netflix this afternoon I noticed Meryl's 1979 movie with Alan Alda The Seduction of Joe Tynan.  I barely remembered watching the film many years ago, and didn't realize it was about a senator trying to block a Supreme Court nominee.  That was a good enough reason to rewatch it, and in Meryl's first scene I realized that she's doing a southern accent.  I did not include this film on my original post about "accents mastered."  Of course there are several southern dialects but from what I understand Meryl based hers on Dinah Shore, who was born and raised in Tennessee.  I'll just assume that's the kind of accent Meryl was using.   Here's the updated list:

The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979)--Tennessean
The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981)--British (specifically Received Pronunciation)
Sophie's Choice (1982)--Polish (in English and German)
Silkwood (1983)--rural Oklahoman
Plenty (1985)--British
Out of Africa (1985)--Danish
Ironweed (1987)--Irish-American
A Cry in the Dark (1988)--New Zealand (with strong layers of Australian)
The Bridges of Madison County (1995)--Italian (Meryl calls it Iowatalian)
Dancing at Lughnasa (1998)--Irish
Angels in America (2003)--Yiddish and Bronx (in separate roles)
A Prairie Home Companion (2006)--Midwestern
Doubt (2008)--Bronx
Julie & Julia (2009)--Boston Brahmin
The Iron Lady (2011)--British (again Received Pronunciation)

4 comments:

  1. Forgive me, and this will make me sound like an insane person, but actually I believe the "Dinah Shore" accent was for her first Broadway play Trelawny of the Wells. I think she talked about it in her interview on Fresh Air. Hahaha. Just wanted to point this out, impressive blog!

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    2. Oooo. I hadn't heard that. I was basing my info from a blog/website about southern accents in film. I suppose it's certainly possible that Meryl used Dinah Shore as an example for both Seduction and Trelawny. Thanks for reading, Nick!

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